Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has invested a total of 5 billion won (national and local government funds) into the site of an old ethanol factory located in Geonip-dong, Jeju-si, where traces of the painful April 3rd Incident and the tumult of Jeju’s modern and contemporary history still remain.

This project intends to commemorate the site of the old ethanol factory and create an educational site for future generations to remember history. To establish the memorial space, which is the first stage of the project, a total of 300 million won was invested last year to install a memorial altar and a symbolic sculpture.

Through a national competition, ideas were selected to memorialize the victims who were imprisoned at this site, which used to be a civilian internment camp during the April 3rd Incident. The prisoners were later transported to the mainland and never returned home. A sculpture of tears symbolizes the tragedy of the ideological war, and a memorial altar was installed to commemorate their deaths.

The symbolic sculpture Sorrow of the Day expresses grief with a huge teardrop that represents the immense sadness, mourning, and pain the victims suffered.

In 2021, when the national government budget is finalized, 2.9 billion won will be allocated to complete the second stage of the project, the Historical Memorial.

An architectural design competition will call for ideas to create a space that remembers the victims’ lives, who surrendered after hiding in the Hallasan area, came under custody in groups from preventive arrests, and their painful history of interrogations, trials, transfers, and deaths.

This architectural design competition will be held nationwide, accepting entries between December 30th, 2020, and February 3rd, 2021. The submissions will undergo evaluations by a judging committee, including experts on the April 3rd Incident. The winner will be selected on February 21st, and the Historical Memorial will be completed by December 2021.

For more information regarding the competition, visit the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province official website (www.jeju.go.kr), click Information by Field, Architecture/City/Land, and Architectural Design Competition. You may change your application within the registration period, but it cannot be modified after the deadline.

“The old ethanol factory site was established during the Japanese colonial period and was a civilian camp at the time of the April 3rd Incident before it became a major industrial facility in Jeju Province around liberation,” said Song Jong-sik, director of the Special Self-Governing Administrative Bureau. “We will renovate it into a site of historical education and a memorial for our future generations to remember the incident.”